CBSE Cancels Class 10 Board Examinations, Postpones Class 12 Exams
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: The Financial Express
New Delhi, April14: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday cancelled class 10 exams and postponed class 12 exams in view of a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The exams were scheduled to be held from May 4.
The decision comes at a time when the country is witnessing over 1.5 lakh new COVID-19 cases on a daily basis. The hashtag #CancelBoardExams had been trending on Twitter, with thousands of students apprehensive of appearing for the examinations given the fact that the country is witnessing a second wave of the pandemic.
"The board exams for class 10 are cancelled. The result will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion developed by the board,” a Ministry of Education (MoE) official said.
“Any candidate who is not satisfied with the marks will be given an opportunity to sit for exams when the situation is conducive," the official added.
“The class 12 exams have been postponed and a review of the situation will be done after June 1. Students will be given at least a 15-day notice before the exams are conducted,” the official said.
The classes 10 and 12 CBSE exams were supposed to begin from May 4. Several leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Priyanka Gandhi, had asked that they be cancelled amid an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases across the country. A call on the examination was to be taken in a meeting chaired by the prime minister, sources had told PTI.
In a Facebook post, Priyanka Gandhi said that in the past few days, she heard from many students across the country raising some important issues related to the examinations amid the second wave of COVID-19. In such a situation, despite the demands raised by the students, the silence of the education minister and the government on this subject was "astonishing", she had said.
The Maharashtra government on Monday postponed the state board exams of Classes 10 and 12,
which were scheduled to be held later this month, in view of a steep rise in COVID-19 cases in the state.The board exams of Class 12 were to begin from April 23 and of Class 10 from April 30.
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